Gareth Swarbrick is removed from his post after the death of a two-year-old boy due to flat mould.
Image source, family handoutThe boss of a housing association which rented out a mouldy flat to Awaab Ishak’s family has been sacked.
The board said it has “taken the decision to remove Gareth Swarbrick from his post as chief executive of RBH with immediate effect”.
Two-year-old Awaab died in 2020 after exposure to mould in his home, a coroner concluded this week.
His father repeatedly raised the issue with Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) but no action was taken.
Earlier this week Mr Swarbrick apologised for the organisation’s response over the mould but rejected calls to quit his £185,000 job, saying he had the board’s “full backing”.
Image source, RBH
After an inquest ended on Tuesday, he said: “We didn’t recognise the level of risk to a little boy’s health from the mould in the family’s home [and] we allowed a legal disrepair process, widely used in the housing sector, to get in the way of promptly tackling the mould.”
Housing Secretary Michael Gove said the organisation’s “repeated failure to heed Awaab’s family’s pleas to remove the mould in their damp-ridden property was a terrible dereliction of duty”.
In a statement on Saturday, the RBH board said: “Our original instincts were for Gareth to stay on to see the organisation through this difficult period and to make the necessary changes, but we all recognise that this is no longer tenable.”
It added the coroner noted RBH had made changes as a result of Awaab’s death and that under new leadership it would continue to embed these changes.
“As an organisation we are deeply sorry for the death of Awaab and devastated that it happened in one of our homes.
“We must ensure this can never happen again. His death needs to be a wake-up call for everyone in housing, social care and health.”
The inquest heard Awaab’s father Faisal Abdullah – who came from Sudan to the UK in 2016 and was joined by his wife Aisha Amin a year later – reported mould in their flat to RBH in 2017 and was told to paint over it.
When their son was aged one, Mr Abdullah instructed solicitors in June 2020 and initiated a claim over the recurring mould issue, but policy meant any repairs would not be done until an agreement had been reached.
The inquest heard Awaab had consistently suffered from cold and respiratory issues. He died after being rushed to hospital with shortness of breath in December that year.
On Thursday, Mr Swarbrick, who was appointed chief executive in 2008, said RBH had “made a raft of changes” after Awaab’s death.
He added the organisation would “continue to strive for greater inclusion and equality” after the boy’s parents said RBH should “stop being racist”.
The family said they had “no doubt at all that we were treated this way because we are not from this country and less aware of how the systems in the UK work”.
